Canbelego is a village in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It is now virtually a ghost town but was once a much larger settlement associated with the Mount Boppy Gold Mine. The name (pronounced can-bell-ee-go) also refers to the surrounding rural locality identified for postal and statistical purposes. At the 2021 census, the population of Canbelego, including its surrounding area, was 54, up from 39 in 2016, but the village itself had only four residents in early 2020. Between 1907 and 1917, the population was around 2,000.
Location It is located approximately 640 km north-west of Sydney, 50 km east of Cobar and 5 km south of the nearest point on the Barrier Highway.
History Aboriginal and early settler history The area now known as Canbelego is part of the traditional lands of Wangaaypuwan dialect speakers (also known as Wangaibon) of Ngiyampaa people.
The Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell and his expedition had camped and obtained water, in early 1845, at a place that he called "Canbelego" but that was not the later site of the village; it was a location—on Bogan River, near to the modern-day locality of Grahweed—about 30 km from Nyngan. As Mitchell tried to use local language names whenever possible, it is likely that the name Canbelego is derived from the local aboriginal dialect. Grahweed and the later site of Canbelego lie at opposite ends of area of the County of Canbelego, and it is likely that the village took its name from the county.
After settler colonisation, the area of the village was partly within Robinson County (Parish of Cohn) and partly within Canbelego County (Parish of Florida). Settlers grazed sheep in the area from, at latest, the 1870s, but the productivity of wool-growing was dramatically impacted, when feral rabbits arrived in the Cobar region, around 1890.
Mount Boppy Gold Mine
The original Mount Boppy Gold Mine operated from 1901 to 1922. It was, at the time, regarded as being the largest gold producer in New South Wales. Over that period, the mine produced 13.5 tons (433,000 ounces) of gold. By the end of 1912, shareholders had received a return of 356% on their capital investment, rising to 500% over the entire 21 years of operation.
After reef mining ceased in September 1921, the old company reprocessed tailings and remnant ore stocks, until finally closing the site and selling off equipment, in 1923.
Between 1929 and 1941, there was minor production of gold from remnant ore and attempts to process tailings. Around 500,000 tonnes of tailings—still containing an average of 3g of gold per tonne—were left on the surface. Starting in 1974, these tailings were reprocessed to recover more gold. Later mining operations included reprocessing of tailings sand that had been used to back fill the old underground workings. In recent years, the mine was reopened as an open-cut operation, but later placed under care and maintenance.
It is estimated that over its entire life, from hard-rock mining and tailings reprocessing, the mine has produced 500,000 ounces of gold. Only with the opening of the New Occidental mine at Wrightville, near Cobar, in the 1930s, did the Mount Boppy mine lose its place as the most productive gold mine in New South Wales. In 2020, drilling revealed intersections of high-grade gold-bearing ore below the bottom of the existing pit. Gold was again being mined there in 2021, and that was expected to continue, until 2022, with limited mine site rehabilitation. In May 2024, Manuka Resources announced that it had raised $8 million in capital to commence production at the Mount Boppy mine. Other mines South-east of the Mount Boppy mine was the Mount Boppy South mine, which was worked in conjunction with the main Mount Boppy Gold Mine. Other nearby mines included the Canbelego Copper Mining Co. (also known as 'the Burra', located 5 miles south of the village, which was operating as early as 1886), the North Mount Boppy Gold Mining Co., and the Restdown Copper Mining Co. (15 miles south-east of Canbelego). Nearer to the railway station at Boppy Mountain was the Boppy Boulder Gold Mine. Around 7 km west of Canbelego, lay the site of the Boppy Broken Hill mine (also known as the Black Range mine), a copper mine.
The deposit that was formerly associated with the Canbelego Copper Mining Co. and later Canbelego Copper Mines Limited—mined between 1906 and 1914—was once again, in 2022, the focus of exploration as a copper resource.
Mining village Growth The village of Canbelego was proclaimed in December 1902, although the emerging settlement— at first informally known as Mount Boppy Mine—had been surveyed and named Canbelego, by late 1900. In May 1901, the population was 184. By the end of 1902, there was already a population of 300 to 400, and two hotels. By mid 1904, the rapidly growing population had reached around 900, with 180 employed at the Mt Boppy Mine.
The post office opened as a receiving office, under the name Mount Boppy Mine, in September 1900. Around October 1900, the mail service between the railway station at Boppy Mountain and the new receiving office was increased, from daily to twice daily, allowing replies to be sent to Cobar on the same day. The receiving office was renamed, Canbelego, from New Year's Day 1901. It became a full post office, in July 1901.The public school was established in 1901, initially with around 35 children; by mid 1904, it had an enrolment of 158, and an average attendance of 120. The main street, Edward Street, had three hotels, six stores, two butchers, a baker, blacksmith, billiard saloon, cool drink shops, many boarding houses, a post office, and a court house under construction. There was also a local doctor. The first of its church buildings, the Presbyterian Church, built in 1901, was shared when necessary with other denominations, pending the other churches being built. All the houses in the town were neat houses of weatherboard construction, not the temporary structures common in mining towns of that time. On the outskirts of the village, a sawmill was busy cutting timber for building work in the growing village.
In 1905, the population reached around 1,500, with around 300 of these being employees of the mine. By 1907, the population had reached around 2,000.
A fourth hotel, the Federal Hotel had opened by late 1908.
Construction of an Anglican church (The Church of the Good Shepherd) began in late 1908, and it was consecrated in mid 1909. Anglican church services were conducted by visiting priests of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd.
By 1908, the village had a Catholic church (St Phillip's). In 1908, a second school, a Catholic Convent School, was opened, with four Sisters of St. Joseph and 70 pupils, and by 1916 it had 135.
In 1910, the village's new Methodist church was opened. The new building was necessary because the Methodists could no longer use the building of 'a sister church' (probably the Presbyterian church) for their services.
Businesses In 1908, Michael Lane, a storekeeper from Nymagee, bought land in Edward Street, for a general store that was to be a part of Canbelego until the early 1920s. His first store, located directly opposite the Commercial Hotel, was burned down, in 1911, but he bought the premises of another business and re-established his store there, January 1912.
Wong Sing Wah, who operated a market garden, on the Nyngan Road, just outside Cobar, had a fruiterer and greengrocer's shop, in Edward Street. Also in Edward St, a Syrian, Joseph Shalala, operated a shop selling drapery, clothing, boots and ironmongery, for around six years before 1914. Robert Linton ran a soft drink business in the village.
Charles Wall came to the village to assist his brother in a general store. He later set up a bakery, then a sweets and cool drinks shop, finally establishing a permanent motion picture show in 1914. He sold up and left the village in 1921. His partner in the cinema venture was Maurice Levy, who also had business interests in Nymagee, another mining village 61 km due south of Canbelego.
The main business of the village were its hotels: the Commercial Hotel, the Miner's Arms, the Federal Hotel, and the Royal Hotel.
Entertainment, recreation, and sports By 1908, there were four hotels, to slake the thirst of miners, but there were also other recreation choices.
From around 1906, the village had its own horse racing course and race meetings were held there on New Year's Day until the racing club was wound up in 1912. A 'patriotic meeting' of the Canbelego Race Club was held at a new race course at Canbelego, in May 1916, and the tradition of races on New Year's Day revived for 1917, with an Easter Monday race meeting in 1918.The village had a cricket club, from September 1904, playing games against Cobar and Wrightville. The games were typically limited to one innings for each side, to allow visiting sides to catch the afternoon train home. Home games were played on a ground known as Canbelego Park. There was also a football club, also playing at Canbelego Park. Initially, the football code played was Rugby Union. A team from Orange, visited in September 1916, being given a warm welcome. "The field was in a very bad state, being as hard as a rock", leaving both teams' players with many cuts and bruises. By around that time, the football code had changed to Rugby League.
The Canbelego Town Band, performed at a second annual fancy dress and masquerade ball, in 1907. It competed in music competitions against other towns.
A travelling cinema 'Phelan's electric biograph' visited and entertained the village over two nights in August 1907. The village had its own venue for motion pictures, Levy and Wall's Picture Show, where a motion picture cinema was established and operated, by a local businessman, Charles Wall, from 1914 to around 1921. On 27 October 1911, the village was entertained by a touring 'Bio-megaphone', an early form of talking motion picture show. It was powered by "huge electric generator imported from America expressly for this tour", and was fitted with "Fire-proof guards to prevent any danger of conflagration". Probably, it was either a Chronophone or a Chonomegaphone (an enhanced version of the Chronophone). Both electrically powered devices were made by Lèon Gaumont, played Phonoscènes, and amplified the sound using compressed air; both kinds of device had been in use elsewhere in Australia by 1911. Most likely, the 'Bio-megaphone' was a Chronophone that had been improved by using a later model film projector, then rebranded, for marketing purposes, to compete with the more modern Chronomegaphone (both the 'Bio-megaphone' and Chronomegaphone began showing, on the same day, in two different Melbourne theatres). Phonoscènes were typically the duration of one gramophone record, including only one song, but longer sound-on-disc films were made of operas.
Difficulties
The rapid growth in population soon exposed the vulnerable water supply—a continuing problem in a semi-arid area—overcrowding at the school, and inadequate postal and telegraph arrangements. The village would suffer an extraordinary number of building fires.
Water and drought Water was critical, in the semi-arid environment. Canbelego's mean annual rainfall is just under 400mm, but it can vary greatly from year to year, with drought an ever present risk. All watercourses in the area are ephemeral.
Enormous amounts of water were needed for the gold processing operations. The mine drew its water from a vast 'tank'. Despite the mine tank's 12-million imperial gallon capacity—enough for eight months operation if full—and very careful water management at the mine, lack of water was a cause of interruptions to production and employment, during droughts. Paradoxically, infrequent but heavy rain could also interrupt mine operations, if water found its way into the mine, as occurred twice in 1913.